A bit of culture, a bit of politics, a few photos, and way too much about transport.

The election

I certainly didn’t expect Bentleigh to go marginal in such a spectacular way. Apparently counting will resume at 4pm, and the result here may well determine the election.

Earlier I spotted a journo and a photographer knocking on Rob Hudson’s door — without success. They then went for a stroll up the street, and were seen photographing (and I assume interviewing) a local shopkeeper.

Interesting times, indeed.

So if we’re now ultra-marginal, when does the pork-barrelling begin? :-)

Update 7pm: The VEC provisional result is the Liberals win the seat. Two-party preferred vote is Libs 15667, Labor 15244.

My assumption is that Rob Hudson lost due to statewide issues, and because of the poor performance of the Frankston line. No other local issues stand out for me, and in fact Labor has been funding school upgrades and the new swim centre. Crime, education, traffic and hospitals aren’t (to my mind) a major concern.

Just moved into Bentleigh. I actually contacted each of the candidates electronically once they were announced a few weeks ago…never heard back from Elizabeth Miller so figured that she probably didn’t want my vote. Had a half hour long conversation over the phone with Rob Hudson though – he gave me a call after he received my email.

Very keen to see whether my vote really ends up making a difference in this seat…

My seat of South Barwon switched sides despite being a huge pork barrel for the ALP and the Libs alike.

It was time for the ALP to go as they trampled their core base, forgot they were a socially progressive party, and targeted policies via focus groups and pollster driven chases for voters that would never vote for them in a million years who simply don’t share the ALP’s now discarded core values.

In my seat, PT is useless. There’s a bus stop near me at Deakin University. But if you want to go to a train station using it, please don’t try to get on it early or late. I’ve just looked at Vic/Link, and to get from Deakin University to the nearest station – Marshall railway station – it will take two buses and between 38 and 56 minutes. For a five kilometre trip. The earliest bus is 6.30 am, so if you wanted to be in Melbourne living where I live, the earliest you could make it there is 9.30 am – so three hours with two buses and one train.

There is a good reason that Deakin students travel by car.

I am not hopeful that the Liberals will do much better as they really didn’t go into the substance of their cash splashes. Let’s see which ones turn into core and non-core promises.